MONTREAL - For a band looking to take the next step in its career, all roads lead to Austin, Tex., for the city’s annual South by Southwest festival.

Around 40 Montreal bands are headed south March 15 to 20 to join 2,000 other groups at what is perhaps the most important event of the year for music industry professionals to schmooze, booze and discover the next big thing.

With Arcade Fire’s recent Grammy win, it is likely that more attention than ever is going to be focused on Montreal bands this year.

If seen at the right time by the right people, bands can come away with a big career boost. But it’s just as easy to fade into the crowd.

There are a few ways for bands to maximize their visibility in such a packed field, such as playing multiple shows in multiple venues over the week. Another way is to band together under an umbrella to make a bigger splash, which is why this year – for the first time – there will be a week-long event called Planet Quebec (taking over the Spill bar in Austin) dedicated to promoting this province’s bands.

Promoter M for Montreal has been throwing Montreal showcases at SXSW since 2007, but this year the Quebec government is partnering with it to create Quebec’s biggest presence yet in Austin, said M for Montreal president Sebastien Nasra.

Even Quebec’s minister of culture and language, Christine St-Pierre, will be heading down for a few days.

The Planet Quebec events kick off with M for Montreal’s annual Poutine Party. Local promoters Pop Montreal, Blue Skies Turn Black, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and others will also be presenting showcases throughout the week.

The U.S. is something of an uncharted territory for francophone bands, unlike Europe, where it tends to be much easier for them to gain recognition. Some bands have managed to make it work to a certain degree – Malajube, for instance, has fans south of the border and is able to tour with modest success despite the language barrier.

But the musical alliance between Quebec and Europe does not exist between Quebec and the United States, and it tends to be harder for non-anglo bands to book shows and find an audience, Nasra said.

“We are really trying to do everything in our power to promote francophone bands,” Nasra said. “Karkwa, for example. Their Polaris Prize will probably help, because that’s huge for them. Karkwa went fairly unnoticed the first time they played SXSW, but I’m eager to see if there is any difference this year.”

Nasra has attended SXSW seven times since 2003, when he first went down in the capacity of manager for singer-cellist Jorane. The festival is like a lottery for bands: sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. Jorane was lucky on her first try – she got a decent turnout at her show and connected with a good booking agent– but Nasra said he’s seen too many bands spend a lot of money with nothing to show for it.

“My best advice to bands who want to go is to wait a year until you have a bigger buzz, a team, a better story to tell. If you can actually contact the people you want to work with beforehand, at least you’ll be going for a reason and your investment will stand a better chance.”

Here are three Montreal bands at different stages in their careers, all heading to SXSW in hopes of making the necessary contacts to solidify their place in what is an increasingly precarious industry:

THE NEW BAND

The debut record by indie-folk outfit the Barr Brothers is in limbo. It has been recorded, mixed and is ready to go; the band even self-pressed a limited number of copies to sell at recent shows. But the Barr Brothers now find themselves at a crossroads when it comes to taking the next step: either they align themselves with a record company, or go the independent route and release the album themselves.

Like a lot of musicians, however, frontman Brad Barr acknowledges they are not so great at the business end of things.

“We’re preparing ourselves to release the record on our own and have been talking to people who can help us so that it won’t be such a scary thing,” he said. “Still, it would be so wonderful if a good label wanted to take it.”

It’s a long shot for a band to find a record deal at

SXSW, but it happens. In fact, it happened to Barr and his brother Andrew with their previous band, the Slip; the founder of Bar/None Records, Glenn Morrow, stumbled upon the group at the festival in 2005 and promptly signed it.

The Slip toured Japan and performed on Conan O’Brien’s show, but was “never particularly successful,” Barr said. The brothers moved to Montreal from Boston and started the new band with harpist Sarah Page and bassist Andrés Vial.

“I guess we’re just looking for some clarity on how to proceed from here, and SXSW could be a good place to find that,” Barr said.

As the music industry is now in a very different state than it was in 2005, Barr is not expecting his new band to experience the same serendipity that the Slip did. In any case, he said, record deals these days are not always advantageous to the artist.

But there are other kinds of connections to be made that can help a music career along, like mingling with public-relations people, marketing types, or booking agents who can put you on the festival circuit. As Barr explains, the more you put yourself in motion, the more stuff happens.

“Nobody’s in a rush here, but our music does seem to be resonating with people right now,” said Barr.

“We made a record that we love, and being out there playing live is still a special thing for us.”

THE FRANCOPHONES

Some Quebec bands are content to make their mark within the province’s borders, with perhaps a few forays into France. A good French-speaking band can carve out a more-than-decent career on that premise. But electro-pop quintet Misteur Valaire wants more.

Its latest record, Golden Bombay, has already brought the band next-big-thing status in this province’s music scene. It is nominated for a Juno award for new group of the year (never mind the fact that the guys have been playing music together for nearly 10 years and have released three albums). And the band played two recent shows at Metropolis. The members plan to ride this wave of hype into what they hope will turn out to be a lasting career.

“We really want as many people to hear us as possible, because we want the freedom and the security to be able to continue making the kind of music we want to make,” said Misteur Valaire percussionist Luis Clavis.

Though the band has not yet played a show in the States, Misteur Valaire’s commercial viability there may be enhanced by the fact that several songs on its latest album are sung (or rapped) in English. That was not a conscious choice, Clavis insists – it’s just that the group let its collaborators sing in the language of their choice, and some of those collaborators (James Di Salvio of Bran Van 3000, Ladies of the Canyon’s Senja Sargeant and others) happened to choose English. Many of Misteur Valaire’s other songs are purely instrumental.

However, one of the challenges Misteur Valaire is bound to face at SXSW is simply cultural: Will Americans “get” their music?

“Honestly, I think some people there might have trouble understanding our cheesy side, more so than Europeans,” Clavis said. “There’s a strong element of self-mockery in our music. Not everyone gets our costumes and boy-band moves – they think we’re being completely serious, when we’re not.”

SXSW is just one step on the band’s quest for world domination, though: it has a tour lined up in Europe, is releasing its record in Germany soon, and may find itself with a statuette when the Junos are awarded March 27.

THE VETERAN

Graham Van Pelt can’t remember exactly how many times he’s been to SXSW with his solo act Miracle Fortress or his band Think About Life. This year might be his fourth foray. He knows the drill quite well by now, and he’s very frank that playing SXSW is not one of his favourite activities.

“I tend to approach it as a car show or a farm equipment convention,” Van Pelt jokes.

“You don’t get the experience you have when you are playing a show for your fans. They make it out to be a big party, but you’re really there on business.”

SXSW is practically mandatory for bands that want to solidify their contacts, he said. For one week, all the power is concentrated in that one small location – everybody in the music industry is down there at the same time, so if you’ve been having a conversation with a label or publisher, you can meet them and put a face to your music. Plus, a not-so-fun business show now can lead to great festival bookings in the future if the right people see you, he said.

Van Pelt is about to put out his second album under the Miracle Fortress moniker and will be playing most of his new songs in front of an audience for the first time at SXSW.

Think About Life is a more typical SXSW band, he said – it has a strong live presence, whereas Miracle Fortress is designed to be primarily a studio project. But playing SXSW is something artists have to do if they are not yet a gigantic sensation and still have room to grow, he said.

“I’m in a great situation right now with the labels putting my music out,” Van Pelt said. “If they want me to play a few shows and shake a few hands, then I’m able to hold up my end of the bargain.”

South by Southwest’s music component takes place March 15 to 20 in Austin, Tex. For more details, visit www.sxsw.com.

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